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Music streaming and power requirements for adequate bass

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Hi all,
I have Phonak Bolero B50-PR’s and I am using slim tubes with titan slim tips and a 1.2mm vent. I am very happy with the everyday performance. However, music streaming is difficult. No matter how high the low frequency gain is set, I don’t really get any adequate bass. It’s far away even from cheap headphones. In normal use, this doesn’t really matter, as I have relatively good hearing (~20dB loss) at the low frequencies, so that I have a lot of direct sound with the vents and really only use amplification at the high frequencies for my steep ski slope loss at around 3kHz.
Now, my question is as follows: Is it a matter of power and I would get better music streaming with superpower models such as a Bolero Bxx-SP? Or is it a frequency range limitation independently of the power rating of the model? After all, the fitting only goes down to 125Hz in the Target fitting software, which is not really sufficient for music hearing. What do the HA’s do below that? How are other user’s experience in that respect and is it any different with other hearing aid brands (e.g. lower frequency limit for fitting)?
Or - would I just need to use other ear pieces without vents to get a proper bass - but then, how to set the low frequencies in the fitting software… ?

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@Acrover said:

Or is it a frequency range limitation independently of the power rating of the HA model? After all, the fitting only goes down to 125Hz

That is your answer, right there.Hearing aids are not tuned to deliver frequencies below 125dB.
You’ll never get bass from ’s. I wear Oticons which are rated very good for music, but NOT good for streaming music.
Best solution, don’t stream, wear good headphones with your HA’s in music program, and let the headphones provide the sound.

@flashb1024 said:

That is your answer, right there.

No, it’s not!
The problem with very low frequencies is venting. If you use closed soft earmolds like InEar monitors then you get a very deep rich bass with your Phonak B models.
By fitting the 125Hz range you fit all frequencies at around and below 125Hz. That’s not the lower limit of the . Indeed I could hear down to 15Hz while streaming.

I’m sure you could find the frequency response of the receiver (? whatever the output transducer is called in audiology-speak) and/or the aid in questions. The wavelength of low frequencies is pretty long, so you’re going to get some filtering with a vent or tube or whatever.

Thanks for your replies. I will give it a try with a closed earmold. Not primarily for music listening, but I would expect to get better performance also for phone calls. And maybe most importantly, I hope to be able to handle noisy situations better. Meaning that I get better microphone directivity and better noise and echo cancellation - and having a lower overall sound pressure level, which prevents me from going to noisy places today, with or without ’s. (And if I do, I use earplugs) I guess the setting will be a bit of trial and error, but it’s good to know that there is amplification also below 125Hz. :slight_smile:

How long have you been using your aids at the current configuration?

I would give it a few weeks. Much of your hearing is in your central processing unit (brain). You should give it time to re-learn how to process sounds you haven’t hear for awhile.

I have found that wearing headphones in addition to hearing aids counter productive. Try wearing the headphones without the and adjust your streaming sound with an equalizer into the headphones to suit your preference. The quality of headphones varies greatly even with premium units. In any case, for bass response, nothing can match an over the ear headphone. My preference is Bose noise cancelling.

I still enjoy playing guitar and banjo.

Jeff

In reply to @Acrover

Over the years reading replies on this great information board system , I have seen many responses stating the use of any vent will limit bass. I use Air Pod pros or a good set of headphones without my hearing aids to stream music. Since they are not tuned to any frequency they seem to work out for me. I even have less expensive ear buds for my work. I repair cars and trucks for a living and cannot wear hearing aids in that environment. I use 3M ear muffs that are designed to stream from any device. My own little world! Bought at Walmart.

I don’t have the Phonak, I use the Oticon OPN 1. In my OPN software (only accessible by the audi or if you have hardware to self program), there’s an option to improve the bass perception (called Power Bass) in streaming mode. It’s nothing earth shattering, but it helps boost up the bass perception a little bit more. Perhaps you can ask your audi to see if there’s a similar setting for the Phonak or not.

Closing off any vent you have should also help minimize the low frequency leakage to help improve low frequency performance. If you’re wearing a style, then maybe a simple set of ear plugs on top of the receivers in the ears will help close off the venting.

When I listen to music and want to maximize my bass performance, I use a pair of headphones that have good bass response on top of wearing my hearing aids. I put my RITE hearing aid shells inside my ear “well” instead of behind my ear to allow the headphones to fit better and also activate the hearing aids’ mode optimally, then I get both the benefit of high frequency amplification from my hearing aids, and the low frequency amplification from my headphones. In this case, of course I don’t try to plug up any vent (like with ear plugs) to allow the bass from the headphones to go through my vents.

Usually this strategy works best for folks with a normal ski slope hearing loss who have more higher frequency loss and less lower frequency loss.

When you listen to music and you wear a hearing aid, part of the sound comes in directly (very often lower frequencies), part (very often missing higher frequencies) is added via the hearing aids. Your hearing aids are tuned such that the direct sound and the added frequencies are in balance for your hearing loss so that your perception is a flat frequency characteristic.
When streaming media to your your ears only hear the sound from the HA i.e. only the higher notes, hence the poor sound quality
If you go for vented tips, your hearing aids need to be re-tuned for that so that more bass comes in also under normal circumstances.

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